


Lionheart

by extraordinari



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-24
Updated: 2017-09-24
Packaged: 2019-01-04 22:38:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12177885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/extraordinari/pseuds/extraordinari
Summary: Finding her lying beside the lake would be the beginning of the end.





	Lionheart

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [SingMeARareOSComp](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/SingMeARareOSComp) collection. 



> This piece is part of the Sing Me A Rare OS Competition Autumn 2017. I had a choice of song and one character which are Iris by Goo Goo Dolls and Regulus Black. The Admins of the group then randomly chose the other character or characters. All characters, spells, magical equipment, and locations from the Harry Potter series belong to JK Rowling.
> 
> I'd like to thank B.D. of Alpha.

His first look at her was both bewildering and astonishingly unremarkable. 

“Do you see that girl, Sev?” Regulus nodded in the direction of the lake, cool grey eyes watching a girl lying completely still in what looked to be wet clothes. Her hair was blowing wildly around her, becoming tangled by the wind. 

“The one with the lion's mane by the lake?” Regulus heard Severus reply as he stepped away from his side and toward the unconscious woman. Her hair was long and slightly stringy where it touched the water, and as he approached her lying form he took notice of the slight dampness of sweat all over her mauve jumper. 

He crouched down on his haunches and touched her shoulder, his voice coming low as to not frighten her awake. “Miss?”

Her head turned in his direction, likely following the sound of his voice and his eyes widened at the sight of her face. 

Skin so pale and sallow that she looked near translucent. He needed her to wake up now. Needed to get her to Madame Pomphrey. “Miss. Can you hear me?” 

“Harry,” she mumbled and was now scrunching her eyes and forehead. “Harry.” 

Severus stepped behind him, watching the girl’s face with disinterest painted in his expression but intrigue in his eyes. 

“Miss, please wake up.” 

“Harry!” She shot up and reached around her without looking, trying to find her wand, he presumed. He grasped her arms and held her still as he tried yet again, in a whisper, to ask if she could come back from wherever she was inside her mind. 

She stalled as his voice finally cleared the fog in her mind and when their eyes connected he felt slightly dizzy. “Reggie?” 

Regulus let go of her then, stepping back and away from her sitting form as Severus held his wand out and pointed at her, lips already moving in what looked to be the beginning of an _Imperius_ curse, but Regulus placed his hand on his arm and shook his head and instead lowered himself again, eyes locking with hers. Cool grey meeting warm whiskey.

“How do you know my name?”

Her eyes fell away from his for a moment to glance down at her left hand and he followed her, catching a glimpse of the regret in her expression following her mishap. 

There on her left ring finger was a Black family heirloom. Silver, goblin forged metalwork and a priceless black onyx stone surrounded by tiny emeralds. He knew exactly which ring that was because a few months prior he’d gone with his father to the Black family vaults and picked it out to be held and preserved for whenever he found someone suitable to wed. 

“Regulus,” Severus warned as they heard voices rushing toward them. She brought her hand up and slipped the ring off, and instead hiding it away in her pocket, murmuring a sticking charm so that it would remain there until she decided to take it out.

“What the hell is going on?” Sirius rushed forward and shoved Severus aside as he reached the young woman. He knelt forward and held his hand out for her, his posture stiff with his back to both Slytherins. 

The woman on the ground looked up at Sirius with watering eyes and started to chew on her lower lip with stress as she very obviously debated on taking his hand. Regulus would have laughed that a woman was debating on touching Sirius if the tension wasn’t so heavy. 

Finally, however, she’d made the decision to accept his help in standing. Regulus watched Sirius as he puffed his chest and raised his head over Severus. 

“Pads! Hold it!” James Potter and the rest of their friends were running forward to the small group by the lake. 

“Prongsie!” Sirius barked with a smile and gestured behind himself to the woman, her eyes now on Sirius, particularly his wand hand. “I saved a little lady here from some snakes.” 

Potter tilted his head and flashed a brief smile to her before turning cool eyes to Severus and then Regulus, but he didn’t so much as flinch in the cold look he received from the arrogant lion. “What happened?”

“We found this young woman lying beside the lake,” Regulus answered for both Slytherin’s and inwardly exhaled in relief when Severus didn’t rile up to spit words with the group of idiots. “We were simply trying to help her.” 

Sirius rolled his grey eyes and brought his hand up to point at Severus. “Snivellus here was pointing his wand at the little lady!” 

Remus Lupin stepped around Sirius and held both hands up as if to come off as not a threat to her. Though his very presence was lethal to them all if one considered his lycanthropy. “Hello,” his voice was gentle and warm. 

The girl looked up from Sirius’ hand and visibly flinched at the sight of Lupin, almost taking a full step back. Lupin flinched at her reaction and quickly backed away, all too well knowing when he was going to be perceived in a negative light. 

But then she surprised everyone.

She ran forward and threw her arms around Lupin’s torso. “I’m so sorry I reacted that way!” She started to mumble into his chest for he was far too tall for her to reach his shoulders and then pulled away. “I was just shocked is all, I feel like I haven’t seen--”

Pettigrew inched his way around Lupin and the woman immediately retracted from the werewolf and stepped in front of his body, shielding three of the Marauders behind herself as she stared wide-eyed at Pettigrew. “ _Accio_ wand.”

As swift as a snitch, her wand shot up from the grass a few feet away and entered her hand. She pointed her wand directly at his chest and was near hyperventilating as her whiskey eyes, near molten terror, stared directly at Pettigrew. 

“What the hell is your problem?” Potter stepped around her and in front of a shaking Pettigrew, the shorter man’s face ashen as he stared at the woman’s wand. Sirius then joined Potter in front of the shivering Gryffindor.

Lupin quickly stepped around her but winced as Sirius brought his wand up and pointed it at her chest. Potter all too quickly joined his comrade in a two-on-one stance. Regulus stiffened at the shameful display his brother and his friends were giving the obviously frightened young woman.

Regulus pulled his wand from its holster inside his robes and raised it at Sirius’ chest. “Sirius,” his voice was careful and calm. 

“Who the hell is she Reggie?” Sirius spat and flicked his hair out of his eyes, obviously trying to keep a good aim on his target. 

With a quivering arm, she lowered her wand and looked at Potter with pleading eyes. “ _Please_ \--”

“What is the meaning of this!” McGonagall’s voice screeched from the castle door entrance and was now rushing forward with Dumbledore right behind her. With an irritable sigh, Regulus lowered his wand with Sirius and stood with the Marauders, awaiting his fate. 

The young woman, however, looked like she might squeal with delight at the sight of the Transfiguration professor. 

With a speed that surprised Regulus, McGonagall and Dumbledore reached their group and immediately the professor's eyes landed on the strange woman. “Who might you be, young lady?” 

Whiskey eyes flicked between the professor and Dumbledore and before she could speak, Dumbledore interrupted her with a quick smile and outreached hand. “Would you care to join me, miss?” 

The young lady hesitantly smiled in reply and nodded, but then turned in the direction of his brother and his friends and whispered something to them too quietly for his ears. It seemed three of the four agreed with whatever it was she said because they all nodded and then she turned back to Dumbledore with her back straight but body subtly shivering. 

“Before you go,” Regulus reached his hand out to touch her arm and she turned her eyes up to meet his silver and he truly could have melted. Whiskey eyes were watching him with an almost tender expression as he shrugged out of his outer Hogwarts robe and slid it over her damp jumper. 

Her smile was breathtaking and he stood still as she stepped on her tiptoes to press a soft kiss to his cheek, “thank you, Regulus.” 

With her warm breath on his cheek his lasting grace, he stood with the group of troublemakers and listened to a lecture from the Transfiguration professor and took a week's detention without so much as a twitch of his nose.

“Reggie,” Sirius’ voice sounded far too much like that of a playful kitten and Regulus sneered at his brother. “Who’s the bird?” 

“What did she say to you?” He returned. 

“What do you care, little snake?” Potter taunted and while Regulus would have loved to have taken the bait, a quick look around showed that Severus had evacuated the scene. He was alone in this fight. 

“Is she your girlfriend, Reg?” Sirius was laughing now. “Or, is she your fiance? I didn’t see a ring or even a trinket from our vaults!” Potter was chuckling with him, leaving Lupin and a still shivering Pettigrew standing looking uncomfortable with the turnout of the conversation.

“Sirius.” 

Regulus was not going to stand and listen to trash talk of either himself or...the young woman. Sirius slowly stopped laughing, both he and Potter were leaning on one another for support from their giggle fest. Lupin and Pettigrew standing beside them with solemn expressions simply turned their attention from their friends to the lone Slytherin.

“A gentleman never points his wand at a frightened witch.” 

Two days later at dinner time, he found his patience regarding the little witch rewarded.

He sat beside Severus at the Slytherin table, his eyes constantly traveling from his food to the closed entrance of the Great Hall. She had to show up again. At least he’d hoped she would. 

“Your little crush is amusing, to say the least,” Severus whispered in his monotone and he felt his nose twitch. Was he that obvious?

“She fascinates me.” 

“Surely, she should. She had on a Black family ring.” Regulus turned his head to take in his friend’s face. 

“Tell me, Severus,” he whispered and inwardly rolled his eyes at his friends hardening features. He almost never said his full name anymore. 

“Have you spoken to E--”

Dumbledore entered through the professor's entrance near the Head Table just then, his hands holding the Sorting Hat. Regulus swallowed and gestured to the front of the room for Severus to turn, all conversation across the Great Hall stunted with the silence now deafening as Dumbledore walked straight to the podium and flashed a great smile. 

“I hope everyone is having a splendid feast this evening,” he started and placed the hat on a conjured stool beside his standing form. “I have great news,” he paused for the briefest of breaths, “we have a new student who shall be sorted tonight. Let’s give her a warm welcome,” he gestured with his hand to the doors and they opened wide to reveal her petite form. 

She took her first steps into the room with her head held high. 

“Woo!” Sirius and his three other friends stood up and clapped, igniting a series of murmurs and claps from the rest of the student body--the exception, of course, Slytherin. The Seventh years simply nodded when she turned her head in their direction for a moment, her eyes searching for someone. 

Just as she was going to meet his gaze, however, Sirius called to her and she turned her head to the group of them. Potter laughed at whatever he saw on her face, Pettigrew cowering slightly with Lupin clapping his back in comfort. 

Sirius winked and she turned her head with a huff, her steps hastening up the middle of the aisle. 

Her foot stepped beyond the edge of the tables and all noise ceased, all ears piqued, all eyes open and waiting. Everyone wanted to know which House this young woman would be joining. What her name was, Regulus thought, held his interest as she sat down on the stool and the hat was placed atop her wild head of hair. 

Five minutes. Hat stall. 

Murmurs began again. Steadily becoming louder with every thirty seconds passed without even a blink from the woman. 

“Suppose she’s a Hufflepuff?” a voice he didn’t recognize sounded from down the table and he almost turned his head. But he held still. He waited. 

“Would be a shame,” Severus whispered, his eyes trained on the woman's petite form. 

Her whiskey eyes shot open and locked straight with his just as the Hat’s voice called, “Gryffindor!” 

She held still and briefly smiled at him, a tentative twist of her lips and then the shouts from Gryffindor were surrounding everyone and she turned her head to laugh at his brother and three other friends as they all stood, Sirius in the lead and all bowed. 

“Truly a pity,” Severus muttered with distaste. “At least she’ll fit in with that wild mane of what she’s sure to call hair.” 

Regulus just stared, confusion circulating his limbs. But she wore his family ring. She should be a Slytherin. Black’s married Slytherins. Black’s married purebloods. 

“Splendid! Let us all welcome miss Iris Granger to Gryffindor.”

“Seem’s like your brother favors Miss Granger,” Lionel Portley spoke up from a few seats up with an amused twist to his lips and Regulus didn’t respond. Anyone who had working eyes could see Sirius and Lupin had their sights set on the young...on Miss Granger. Iris. Iris Granger. 

That certainly didn’t sound like a Pureblood name. 

His first encounter with her after the sorting was a mere three days later, in a private alcove in the library. 

He was trying to find a specific book that covered the growing process for a specific root he needed to grow for a Potion’s project. But as he was stepping around a shelf, he caught her sitting on the stone surrounding a window, her head bent over a thick book with a red binding and he narrowed his eyes, a small smirk tilting at his lips. 

“What has you interested in Time Travel?” 

She had her wand out in seconds and aimed it directly at his chest, but the minute she noticed it was him, she lowered it with cautious eyes.

“That really isn’t your business, Black.” 

Maybe he should try a Sirius approach?

“Ouch.” He threw his hand over his heart and feigned hurt, throwing himself back a step. “I went from Reggie to Regulus, and now to Black. Why is it that I lose more and more of your favor every time we speak?” 

She snorted and shook her head. 

“You should try being yourself, one Sirius is enough.”

“Why would I be imitating Sirius?” She was right though. One Sirius is all Europe could take, no need for two. He straightened his body out and continued to study her features. 

The just shagged hair and, Regulus was sure he’d heard his brother mentioning to Potter, her “fuck me” eyes were his favorite bits of her. That she also on occasion liked to chew on her lip while she studied and thought no one was glancing didn’t help the occasional image his brother’s descriptors brought to mind. 

She narrowed her eyes and set her book down, he glanced at the cover and nearly snorted himself. “So you were reading up on Time Travel.”

“Again, Black, it’s none of your business.” 

She was starting to get nervous. He could see it in the creases at the corner of her eyes and the worrying of her lip between her teeth. 

“I’ve always been a bit curious, myself,” he stepped forward, watching her retreat slightly into the alcove and then stepped closer again, keeping an especially careful eye on her wand hand. “Would you consider yourself curious as well, Miss Granger?”

She gasped and he raised his eyes from her hand to meet her gaze. She had such wide, beautiful eyes. 

Firewhiskey really couldn’t compare to how drunk he felt when caught in her gaze. 

Did she feel the same, he wondered?

“Iris!” Regulus flinched and turned his head to find Potter with Lupin looking in, Potter’s head at the front with Lupin right behind with a cautious gaze on Regulus. 

“James! Remus!” Regulus stiffened at her calmer tone. “One, Two… Wheres Three and Four?” 

“Out by the Quidditch fields. Sirius wanted to show you a trick or something on his broom,” Remus stepped around Potter to stand just a few steps in front of Regulus, slightly blocking Iris from his view. He got the message. 

“Perhaps we can continue our discussion at a later time, Miss Granger,” he nodded to her and then stepped around Potter, his ears trained on her voice as he walked away from the alcove. 

“Did he attack you? What did the little snake want?” 

“Relax, James. He was only asking how I was settling in.” She sounded at ease with the lie. He was impressed. Gryffindor’s didn’t typically lie so well. He didn’t really consider it in their nature to be all right with lying. She was a lioness full of surprises.

Four months passed before his second encounter with Miss Granger. It was at the large tree by the lake, but he wasn’t quite sure he could call it an encounter. They didn’t speak once. Or rather, she didn’t speak to him. 

“Quite late, isn’t it, Mr. Black?” Pandora Valerio, Ravenclaw Seventh year was sitting beside a weeping miss Granger, her arms wrapped around the brunette woman and holding her close in obvious comfort. “What brings you out so late? You seem to have a bit of a Wrackspurt problem with all of them suddenly bombarding your head like that. Are you feeling fuzzy?” 

Regulus didn’t answer. He could only take in that beside the strange blonde was Miss Granger and that she was obviously comforting her...but he wanted to know why. He stared down at her shaking form, eyes resolutely not moving. 

“I believe Mr. Black is here, Iris. I’ll let you both converse,” the blonde woman leaned down to press a kiss to the top of miss Granger’s curls and then slowly stood, an ethereal smile on her face but clarity in her pale eyes as she connected with his silver. “Do be kind to Iris, Mr. Black.” Then she walked away and toward the castle, moonlight shining the way back. 

“Miss Granger? What is the matter?” 

Her response was to rise from her position on the grass and run to him. He caught her in his arms and placed his hands on her hips, flexing them as he awaited her response. “Miss Granger?” 

She threw her arms around his neck and with hard pressure pressed her lips to his. 

She tasted of salt and pears and despair. In his arms was a woman weeping true heartache, running now on the last bits of energy her body could provide in pity of her broken heart. 

She clawed at him. Running her hands up and entangling into his hair, running each finger individually through strands as she brought her body flush to his front. 

She was so soft. Were all women this soft, he wondered? Did they all taste of Grace when kissed? Did they mewl like a purring kitten when rubbed at their waists? 

“Iris,” he was near moaning when she dragged him back to the tree and started nibbling at his jaw, he felt like putty in her hands. She was tugging on a particular few strands of his hair at the nape of his neck, a quickfire was spreading from his upper spine down to his groin and he rutted twice against her body. 

She jumped up and wrapped her legs around his waist, her warm, damp center brushing against his hard length and he gasped, for a moment becoming entrapped by her welcoming body and sensual eyes. 

But soon, he was finding clarity in her wandering hands, the sound of unbuckling and a zipper clearing his mind. 

He started shaking his head, his hands flying from her waist to grip gently on her wrists and stop them from pulling his pants down. “Love,” he whispered and winced at the way her body stiffened. “Iris, love, we can’t do this here. Not now.” You deserve so much better than this, was left unsaid.

She was falling apart slowly in his arms. She opened her eyes, pupils dilated in lust and quickly watering as they held still. He was trapped again. But he could see she was trapped as well. “Iris, love, talk to me.” 

She didn’t open her mouth once. Didn’t seem to be breathing, either. 

“What’s happened in the four months since October?” She was a puzzle.

She opened her lips then, looking and debating on whether to say anything before closing her mouth and instead deciding to hold his gaze with a slight pout. She had something to say but now wasn’t the time. He could read it in her eyes. 

Warm, liquid whiskey. 

He set her feet down on the ground but kept his hands at her waist. He wouldn’t let her go. He’d give up anything to keep holding her, to touch her. Her very gaze was slowly becoming an addiction. Her touch was warmth, the first glow of hope in months of a life worth living. 

“Iris,” she was reaching down to collect her things, but he still didn’t let go. “Love.” 

She tore her eyes from her things to look up at him, and he could see the stars reflecting in her eyes. All of the universe shining up at him. 

With hesitation, she reached up and brushed her fingertips across his cheek. Angel’s wings weren’t as soft or as tender as her trembling fingers. 

Then she stepped away and started up the path to the castle, his eyes following her form. 

“I would suggest keeping an eye on her,” Severus whispered while they walked to the Astronomy Tower. “She’s watched no one else but you for months now. Slowly looking more and more haggard,” he kept his head low and voice even lower. 

Regulus knew this. He’d been keeping his eyes on her as well. As the months passed, their eyes would connect and little by little, he’d see her energy drain away. Her shoulders would wither and she’d fall back on his brother and their group of friends. 

“What do you suppose she’s planning?” 

Severus didn’t answer and instead stopped at the steps of the tower and turned around, his head even lower as he turned a corner and out of Regulus’ sight. 

“Reggie,” her murmured voice brought calm to his nerves and he turned, finding her smiling, angelic face waiting. “Would you like to come up and talk for a bit?” 

“Back to Reggie, are we?” He kept his tone light but didn’t take a step forward or backward. 

She giggled lightly and he felt his mask crumble. He stepped forward and slipped his hands into his pockets, not trusting that they wouldn’t reach for her. 

With a warm smile, she gestured behind her and they climbed the stairs swiftly.

“Iris--”

“My name isn’t Iris.” Her tone icy. “Please. Call me Hermione.” 

He stopped moving and stared at her climbing form. 

“I know I’ve kept many things from you. I owe you quite an apology but you must understand I didn’t know what was going on at the time. I simply knew that I had to get back without causing too much of a ruckus in this timeline and--”

“What do you mean?” He felt his body stiffening as she stopped climbing and looked down at him from her escalated steps. 

“I”m not from here, Regulus. I’m not a transfer student. I’m not Iris Granger. I wasn’t born in this timeline...at least, not yet.” Her eyes were watering and he quickly climbed to reach her but she kept one step away and started to climb again. 

“Where are you from then?” 

With a soft voice, she began to tell him everything. Began to tell him about Harry, Ron, Sirius, and Remus and their lives during the Second Wizarding War and their search for Horcruxes when she woke up here. She told him that exactly one year from today, he would make a decision to defect from the Death Eaters. That Kreacher would come to him broken and bruised and near death because of his Dark Lord and he’d decide to defect silently. 

Then, with adoration, she told him how she fell in love with a broken man. Told him about the visits in the Black Family library, the mornings over warm tea, and the stolen kisses they shared that not long after led to a marriage proposal. 

“You’ve known?” His voice came out breathy and in whispers. “You’ve always known that I was a Death Eater?” 

She nodded in response and reached forward to push the door open, now keeping her lips shut as she walked in waited for him to follow. He did. 

“Why are you telling me any of this?” He closed the door behind himself and locked it nonverbally, keeping his eyes on her back as she stepped forward to the farthest wall, keeping her back to him. 

“You should know that you have a choice,” she whispered, turning her head in his direction slightly. “You will always have a choice in this, Regulus.” 

“What are my choices?” He already knew what he would choose though. He’d choose her. Always her. 

“One year from today. If you decide to defect,” her voice was shaky and her hands were trembling. He wanted to step forward, to move, but he was rooted. “I’ll be waiting at Potter Manor for you.” 

“But?” 

“There’s always a chance that me staying here could cause all kinds of unknown things to happen...I’m scared, Reggie.” She finally turned around and tears were falling from her eyes, leaving sticky, wet trails on her porcelain cheeks. He ran forward and captured her face in his hands, gingerly brushing his thumbs over the newly flowing drops.

“Shh, Hermione,” he pressed his forehead to hers, holding her as she sobbed. “Love. I’m choosing you. I’ll always choose you.” 

“I’ve missed your voice saying my name,” she whispered and closed her eyes, keeping her forehead pressed to his. “Say it again.” 

“Hermione,” he pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose and she sighed happily. 

“Lionheart,” she whispered and snaked her arms around his neck, keeping their foreheads touching and fulfilling a dream of his since he first met her. “I love you.” 

“I’d give up forever to keep touching you,” he was swaying them now, their bodies moving to silent music in a gentle turn around the room. 

“Lionheart,” her murmur was low and breathy. “There’s another choice.” 

He shook his head, shifting his hands from her face, over her shoulders and landing on her hips, “I don’t want another choice.” 

“Listen to me, Lionheart.” She sounded desperate as they moved and finally he stopped them, his eyes closing as he waited for her voice. “I’m going to give you a memory. That memory will hold a very important factor in what you decide to do.” 

“Iris! I know you’re up there!” Lupin could be heard from down the staircase and immediately Regulus stiffened his body, wrapping his arms tighter around her giggling form. 

She pushed his shoulder gently and he released her as she reached for her wand in her robe sleeve. 

“ _Expecto Patronum_ ,” she called in a serene voice and he stared in surprise at the glowing lioness waiting before both of them. “I’ll be down in a minute. Just be patient.” With that, it drifted away and through the door. 

“You truly are an amazing woman,” he whispered and wrapped his arms around her again, inhaling the scent of lavender and ink. 

She was reaching into her other sleeve and pulled out a vial before pressing her wand to her temple and twisting, trying to gather the memory she wanted him to receive. 

“Remember, Lionheart, I love you. Forever and always,” she pulled her wand away and slipped the memory into the vial, corked it and then slipped it into his trouser pocket. “No matter the decision you make, I’m proud of you.” She reached forward, pulling his face down and pressed her lips softly to his. 

Her lips were velvet against his, scorching in warmth and for a moment...He let his mind slip and pretended that for a second, he was just another guy snogging his girlfriend in the Astronomy Tower. 

“Iris!” Lupin sounded closer somehow and he growled against her lips. She giggled again, placing her palm on his cheek and rubbing her nose against his. 

“I’ll be seeing you,” she whispered with finality in her voice and stepped away, her palm still resting against his cheek until she reached the door. She finally let go and left the room. A slight trembling in her lips as she left him standing alone. He listened to the laughing from her friends as she explained she had to test a new spell of some kind. 

One year. 

Exactly one year later, he finally took a look at her memory.

With that knowledge, he knew his decision. 

With tears in his silver eyes, he took Kreacher to remove and replace the locket. 

With Kreacher now gone to hide the real locket, he lay dying, remembering her voice. Remembering her touch. Her kiss. Her. 

_You’re the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be._


End file.
